Replacement Scrunchie
by steepedinshadows419
Summary: Post-Movie - Peter has a surprise for Lara Jean on their first official date as a couple. Peter/Lara Jean. One-shot.


**A/N:** My first TATBILB fic! I hope you enjoy it! I'm pretty pleased with the final product and enjoy these two so much, so I was THRILLED when my bestie, Heather ( **MasochistandNarcissistFan** ), requested a fic of them for her birthday. (Happy Birthday, hun!) Let me know your thoughts!

 ***** Many thanks to **sendtherain** for beta'ing.

 ***** I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

Things were great with Peter. Not just great; incredible.

Everything they did was the same. They still held hands. They went to parties. They had movie nights with Kitty. They hung out with his friends at lunch. Well, _their_ friends now. But they also did stuff with her friends – Chris and Lucas – too. They got along with him great and vice versa.

Peter still stuck his hand in her back pocket when they walked together, and he still wrote her little notes – which she _loved_. She started writing him notes too, which he got a kick out of. She thought he was making fun of her at first, but when she was hanging by his locker one day, she saw they were practically pouring out of the open front pocket of his backpack and proceeded to tease _him_. He blushed fiercely, so she figured they were even.

The best part of all of this was that it was real. Maybe it had grown to be real before, but with all the pretending, it was hard to decipher what was real and what wasn't. It had hurt to think about because she was falling for him, and she had figured she was supposed to assume it was all fake.

But now she knew none of it was. It felt so good to know that. Every smile, every laugh, every touch, every compliment, every grand gesture was 100% real. She never thought a real relationship could be this good. And for his sake, as well as her own, she tried not to dwell on how crushed she'd be if it all ended.

Today, that fear wasn't even a thought in her mind. Because today was the day Peter was taking her on their first official date – just the two of them – as a couple. No younger siblings or friends or parents. And yeah, he wasn't taking her to a fancy restaurant or the movies. In fact, they were going to a crowded mall food court, the kind where depending on the time of day, your voice either echoed throughout the entire room or you couldn't hear yourself think.

Right now, it was happy medium. Lara Jean loved how he somehow knew when that was.

They'd finished lunch and were talking casually. Sometimes she lost her train of thought because he was holding her hands across the table, playing with her fingers; and when she met his eyes and saw his gaze so full of adoration with that little smirk at the corner of his lips, she couldn't help but melt. Sometimes it was just hard to believe this was her new reality.

"Hey, do you think – would you mind if I just – Hold on just one second." He held up a finger, then pressed a quick peck to her lips and scampered down the wide hall towards the little shops.

She was overwhelmed briefly by the feel of his kiss on her lips, reveling in the slight buzzing she felt whenever his lips pressed against hers. But then it was over, and she turned to look in the direction he'd gone.

"Peter! What are you-" She started to get up.

He turned around, walking backwards for a few steps.

"Stay there! I'll be right back!" he called to her. "Just…wait."

And then he was darting away, still walking faster than normal until he'd gone around the corner, and she could no longer see him.

Confused but reminding herself trust was key, as he'd said, she sat back down.

The next five minutes felt like torture. Finally, the sound of her own fingers drumming drumming on the table nearly drove her mad. Since she couldn't seem to stop, she got up instead and went in the direction Peter had gone.

She came to an abrupt stop when she saw him purchase an item inside a girly store that sold, amongst other things, hair accessories, jewelry, hats, and purses.

Watching him quizzically as he thanked the cashier, she gave him a judgy look when he walked out of the store and found her staring straight at him.

"Do I wanna know?" she asked, a smirk now tugging at _her_ lips.

He laughed. "I can explain."

"Really," she deadpanned but smiled because the hopeless-slash-dreamy look on his face was always her undoing. "I'm listening."

He handed the little white plastic bag over to her.

"Here." She took it hesitantly, glancing at it suspiciously, until she heard him laugh. "Just look inside already, would you?"

She met his eyes. "It's for me?"

He rolled his eyes and closed the distance between them, putting his hands on her hands.

"Yes. Now look inside, Covey, before I do it for you."

She obliged him, opening the bag further and reaching in to grab the item he'd purchased. She gasped softly when she felt what it was, then pulled it out of the bag to look at it in the light and proceeded to be further spellbound.

Once she could tear her eyes away, she looked up at Peter, who looked to be holding his breath waiting for her reaction.

"Is this…?"

"Do you hate it?" he asked, wincing.

"What?" she asked, startled. "No, I love it." She slipped it onto her wrist to use for later and turned her arm around to view it at different angles. "It's got at least five colors, and it's really sparkly and stretchy, and-"

"So, you like it," he concluded.

She laughed, then let her hand fall to her side as she took in his serious expression, sobering immediately.

"Wait, is this-"

"I just…I felt really awful about what happened to the last one."

She tilted her head to the side.

"Your favorite scrunchie from before," he reminded her.

The memory of Gen waving said scrunchie in front of her face after the ski trip flashed before her mind. She remembered how hurt she'd been, especially when Gen told her that Peter had given it to her. Accompanied by the admission that he'd been to her room the night before, it had proven too much. In the end she'd concluded Gen must've stolen it. If one part of her story was false, there was a good chance the other part was too, she reasoned.

"Right," she said, forcing herself to focus on what he was saying. She had a bad feeling about what was coming, but she told herself not to jump to conclusions. "I thought she was lying." She paused. "I mean, after…you know."

She avoided eye contact, unsure if she was referring to the locker incident or about him telling her he was in love with her after she told him she liked him – _and not in a fake way_.

She got butterflies thinking about that second one.

"The thing is…" He took her hands in his again. "I did give Gen your scrunchie."

Her brows furrowed, a little bit of hurt surfacing, though not as much as she expected to.

"You did?"

"Yeah." He nodded, then swallowed, nervous in a way she hadn't seen him since they got together for real on the lacrosse field. "At the first party you and I went to together."

Her heart nearly stopped. She'd assumed at the ski trip, but it had been even farther back than that. The hurt and building anger she was trying to stomp down on was briefly stilled when she realized she hadn't thought to wonder where it was during all that time.

"Gen followed me into the bathroom, and she was…bothering me."

Lara Jean blinked.

That was _way_ early on. Gen was a bother to him back when he was trying to win her back?

"So you gave her my scrunchie?" she asked, confused. That didn't make sense.

He shrugged. "She asked for it, and I wanted to get her off my back. I asked for it back, but she wouldn't give it to me, and honestly I just wanted her to leave me alone, so I let her keep it." He finally met her eyes again. "I'm sorry."

"I'm confused," she said, hurt and anger completely gone. "How could Gen have been annoying to you when you were trying to win her back? Make her jealous? Wasn't that the point?"

"It was." His brows furrowed. Now he appeared to be confused. "I guess I was enjoying being with you. I didn't like that she was interrupting that…or what she was saying about us."

She wondered for a beat what Gen had said but then decided it didn't matter. She intertwined her fingers with his and looked up at him with a smile on her face.

"So you decided to buy me a new scrunchie and hoped that would make it all better?"

He winced. "Does it?"

She closed her eyes and tilted her head up for his kiss. After a moment's hesitation, he leaned down to press his lips to hers.

"I feel like it has to if you're letting me kiss you," he said.

She laughed and opened her eyes.

"After everything that happened, Peter…it just feels like…I mean, it's just a scrunchie, right?"

His lips parted, clearly startled by this turn of events.

"So, you're not mad," he said.

"I'm glad you told me what happened," she said. "I am really, really glad you told me it happened actually." A beaming smile started to spread across her face. Infectious as it was, it spread to his.

"Oh, yeah, why's that?"

"Because. It means you were starting to like me really early on."

"Well…yeah," he said, as if it should be obvious.

"I thought it was just me," she admitted.

He sighed softly, then ran his hands up her arms, cupping her face.

"Oh, Lara Jean…" and kissed her again, this time longer.

"You didn't need to get me a new scrunchie, Peter," she said after they'd parted.

"No?"

"Mm-mm."

"I can take it back," he teased, lowering his hand to wear it was scrunched around her wrist.

"Ah-ah-ah." She pulled back. "It's my scrunchie now."

He laughed and followed her the two steps she's gone.

"Well, technically I paid for it."

"It was a gift!" she said, squealing when he pinned her against the railing and then lowered his head so they were almost touching.

"If you say so," he murmured and kissed her again.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him some more, till a couple guys walking by whistled at them and they broke away. Peter rolled his eyes and laced his fingers through hers.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

She beamed, a little skip to her step as she followed him.

"Okay."

Her voice was soft and bright, making him turn to look at her.

"What?" she asked, feeling the heat spread across her cheeks at the look in his eyes.

"You're cute, Lara Jean."

Her heart beat wildly inside her chest. She was beside him a second later, despite his long strides.

"You're charming, Peter Kavinsky."

He grinned and squeezed her hand tighter.

"I love you."

It was so casual the way he said it. She wondered how three such important words strung together could ever be casual, but he made it work.

He met her eyes, but there was no pressure there. He didn't need her to say it back. He knew she would say it when she was ready.

They reached the escalator a while later, and he surprised her by swinging her around and piggybacking her down the moving stairs.

"Peter!" she squealed, holding on for dear life as he laughed cheerfully. His laugh was intoxicating to listen to.

When they reached the bottom, he set her down and looked at her with the most swoon-worthy heart eyes she'd ever seen. She couldn't help wondering for the hundredth time how she had gotten so lucky.

 _I love you, Peter Kavinsky_.

Soon, she would say it.


End file.
